50 Pfennig

Wettin, a small town on the Saale River in Saxony-Anhalt, issued Notgeld during the acute small-change shortage that followed World War One. Municipal authorities across Germany — from major cities down to villages of a few thousand — were authorized to print their own emergency fractional currency when the Reichsbank could no longer supply adequate coin. A magistrat issue like this one carries no bank backing whatsoever; it was redeemable only locally, essentially on the goodwill of the issuing town.

Wettin gives its name to the royal House of Wettin, whose dynastic reach extended to the British throne. Whether that connection influenced any design choices on these notes is a separate matter.